This week, we learned how to create 360° videos using Unreal Engine and the Off World Media Production Toolkit. I’ve always liked how 360° videos let viewers explore scenes from any angle, making the experience more immersive and interactive.
We started by installing the Off World plugin, which includes Sprout—a tool that links Unreal Engine with TouchDesigner for real-time interaction. This makes the workflow smoother and more connected.
The process involved setting up a 360° camera in Unreal, adjusting project settings, and using Blueprints and the Sequencer to animate the scene. After rendering, we did minor edits in Media Encoder. It was a great intro to a powerful way of storytelling that puts the viewer in control.
Project Progress:
Now that I had the textures, I moved on to finish the environment. The idea was to visually show the character falling through these distorted letters—each one representing external expectations or judgments. As the character drops deeper, it reflects the concept of falling from grace or being reshaped by outside forces.
Alongside working on the environment, I also set up the surrounding human figures in the scene. These figures represent the crowd around the central character and are crucial to the narrative, symbolizing societal expectations and pressures.
I textured the surrounding humans with metallic black to represent perfection and uniformity, contrasting with the colorful main character. I created the textures in Substance Painter and refined the metallic look in Blender using a detailed shader node setup to control reflections and highlights.
Simultaneously, I turned my attention to the main character mesh, which Arpit had rigged. For the character’s initial texturing, I wanted to move beyond static colors and create a dynamic, colorful gradient that constantly shifts. This choice was intentional to symbolize fluidity and transformation in the character’s identity, visually reinforcing the project’s thematic core. To achieve this effect, I exported the rigged character mesh to Blender, where I experimented with node-based shader setups. Blender’s flexible node editor allowed me to create a procedural gradient texture that smoothly changes across the mesh’s surface. This involved layering color ramps, noise textures, and gradient masks to produce a seamless and evolving gradient effect. The process required a detailed understanding of Blender’s shader system and careful tweaking to balance subtlety with vibrancy.
This experimental phase was essential because it introduced a visually striking element that adds complexity and depth to the character’s appearance, aligning with the narrative’s focus on identity as something mutable and multifaceted.